Why the free market is awesome

Take a look at the picture below.  What you may see as a silly way to cover up a dent, I see as the free market at work.  Lets think about this...one day someone had the thought that people who have dents in their car may not have the money or desire to get the dents fixed.  This is the identification of a target market.  They then had the idea of making the unfortunate dent into a joke that the car owner could laugh off by placing a big magnetic band-aid over the dent, giving the owner the chance to laugh off their unfortunate circumstance.  These car band-aids were produced, and income was created for the person who made them.  This income was used to support themselves and those around them, the grocery store down the street where they buy their food (lets be honest though, someone who comes up with an idea like this is probably more of a farmer's market or local farm co-op type), the scooter salesman who sold them their scooter, the state employee who is paid by this person's taxes, etc.  Not to mention this idea helps supports all the people who have a hand in making the product (more than likely, distributors, suppliers, manufactures, etc are involved).  One could look at it and say the car band-aid is one of the most important items in a hand full of people's lives.  Would a product like this exist in a government run economy?  Most likely not.  Evidence suggests that the accessory market suffers in state run economies because of their limited resources and the fact that car ownership is lower in these economies.  Does the car band-aid have competition?  Yes...and competition is good.  It has competition against a range of people from the body shop owner to the car gauze pad.  Ultimately, the strongest product or service will win and we will all reap the benefits.

This picture was taken in the parking garage of UMSL as I was on my way to study.